At the behest of two-term U.S. poet laureate and senior distinguished fellow at the Winter Park Institute Billy Collins,Paul McCartney spoke Thursday night to a few hundred students at Knowles Memorial Chapel on the campus of Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.

Kept secret until the morning of the event, McCartney's visit prompted so much interest that students had to win tickets in a lottery system.

'I'd say, 'It's getting better all the time,' and he'd say, 'It can't get much worse,' McCartney told the students of his creative chemistry with John Lennon. 'I would have never thought of that.'

When asked whether lyrics or music come first, he replied, 'I tell students all the time, 'Look, I don't know how to do this.' Every time I approach a song, there's no rules. Sometimes the music comes first, sometimes the words - and if you're lucky, it all comes together.'

McCartney described how his inspiration for 'Yesterday' came in a dream. Certain an old melody was stuck in his head, he went around humming the tune, asking if anyone knew it. 'After two weeks,' he said, 'I claimed it.'

Collins brought up how McCartney's songs have been covered by countless bands, prompting Paul's gratitude. 'If someone on the street corner is reading one of your poems,' he asked Collins, 'is it going to bother you?'

Asked about the Beatles' musical evolution in the late 1960s, McCartney drew applause and laughter recalling 'a natural growing up we developed - and drugs.'

'At the beginning of the Beatles,' he said, 'you've got to remember, we were a boy band... It was all really fan-oriented. It's not a bad thing, but after a while you felt like you wanted to move on.'

McCartney and Collins found common ground at the intersection of lyrics and poetry. Sharing how he once read his own poems to a group of scholars in New York City, McCartney admitted 'it was pretty nerve-wracking' and quite different than playing to record-breaking concert crowds. 'I had to respect the silence as a great thing,' he said.

McCartney closed the night with a performance of 'Blackbird.'

'This was a wonderful event provided through the generosity of Sir Paul McCartney,' said Rollins Acting President Craig M. McAllaster. 'He wanted it to be intimate and mostly for students. That's why they filled most of the seats. It's a wonderful thing to have someone of his stature and significance give us his time and talent to Rollins College.'

In a small chapel on the Rollins College campus Thursday, students were inspired by a music legend.
Sir Paul McCartney spoke to students at the Winter Park college.
Rollins College Public Relations said McCartney requested Knowles Chapel because it was an intimate setting.

The school held a lottery for students to get tickets to the event. Of the 3,200 students at Rollins, only 600 won tickets.

Students who got to see The Beatles alumnus said he talked about his
early days in the music business, working with the other Beatles.
"Talking about how he got started in it and singing and his relationship with Ringo Starr," said Adam Bermudez.

"He talked about writing with John [Lennon] and how sometimes you just need another opinion," Carter said.

We're told McCartney also sang "Blackbird."

McCartney was asked to come by Billy Collins, the famous poet. Collins isn't a professor but he gives lectures at the college.
School leaders described the event as a conversation with students about lyrics, poetry, music and the creative process.

"A lot of life advice," Amy Zdon said McCartney imparted. "Like if you are in the creative process, keep trying."

Several students said their parents were jealous.
"I know my parents were so pumped that I got to go because they are
huge Beatles fans and Paul fans and I just thought it was the coolest
thing ever," said Katie Wookey.
Most students we talked to said they left inspired and touched by his words.
"He said keep trying and trying and trying and never give up," Bermudez said.

Last night, during Paul McCartney's performance of "Helter Skelter" at Atlanta's Philips Arena, I reveled in the exoticism of electric guitars. The song's scratchy, downspiral riff - the same one that McCartney and George Harrison played in unison on the Beatles' 1968 White Album and that gave crazy killer Charles Manson enough bravado to believe he could outlive an apocalypse - is the epitome of what rock 'n' roll was: loud, dangerous, sexy and irresistible.

In some ways, listening to a classic rock concert nowadays feels like stroking the pelt of an extinct species: on the underside, the instruments are rough and freewheeling, on top, the melodies are plush like fur. We buy the tour merch, we lift our lighters, er, phones into night like good rock fans do. We cannot deny, however, that the animal that was rock 'n' roll is long gone. This review is not an epitaph for the genre, nor is this blog long enough for me to get too intellectual about a concert. Rather, it's a moment to stop and cherish the music that transcended sound, embraced social movements and brought us together like never before and never again.

Basically, it's about how Paul McCartney is everything.

In spite of "Helter Skelter," the Beatles were the least scary and most accessible rockers of all time, and that's in part because McCartney can't stop shining like the sun. Thank God. There's a transference of optimism that happens when one hears his tunes. Even at his most contemplative, that "chin up" attitude prevails. His face may be plastered on six decades worth of pins, mugs and bobbleheads, but McCartney is not a two-dimensional icon. He's our everyman and a Renaissance Man. The whistler. The cut-up. The artist. He loves music and it loves us back. What a trade-off!

Not much has changed about his set list since I first saw McCartney perform when I was a college student in Germany in 1989. It doesn't need to. The "Eleanor Rigby" lyrics and counterpoint still stir empathy; "Live and Let Die" sounds as James Bond-y as ever, only now with bigger pyrotechnics; and no rock anthem is close to topping "Hey Jude." Recent songs "New" and "Queenie Eye" fit seamlessly in the mix. McCartney howls, growls and hoots like he always did.

Yet his ability to be musically delicate and vulnerable is what made him so much more than just a rock star in the first place. At 72, what McCartney's lost in ham factor he makes up for in sincerity. The words in his ballads have personal relevance, and his delivery is without pretense. With his third wife Nancy in the audience, he dedicated the moody "My Valentine" to her before launching into his love-filled "Maybe I'm Amazed." "This one's for Linda," he said as the video screens flashed images of him holding his infant daughter Mary in 1970s footage shot by his beloved first wife and mother of his children (Linda died in 1998). McCartney sang to Harrison in a fitting rendition of "Something," which showcased that late Beatle's under-appreciated songwriting skills. In tribute to John Lennon, Paul finger-plucked his acoustic six-string during the rarely performed "Here Today," a 1982 number about a conversation he wishes they'd had. The song ended with a sweet falsetto line that was so pure, it drew tears. What more should be said?

This concert was an interactive postcard to the future. One day soon, we might need an example of what it means to love, to play, to live ... music. Hearing beauties like "And I Love Her" or "Let It Be" directly from McCartney's mouth confirms to me that his melodies indeed aren't just the music of a generation. They're the music of being human, world without end.

14/10/2014

Chelsea Clinton talks to the designer about fashion, family, and daring to go your own way.

Clinton: I
wanted to talk to you about family and creativity. Do you feel like
you're the designer that you are because you inherited something? Or is
it because you grew up in a certain environment with creative parents?Stella McCartney: It's an interesting question, and
one I thought about a lot when I was growing up. I think that one can't
help but be steered and navigated in ways; it's just kind of what you
know. I also think that part of it is DNA. For instance, I don't do
music, but I see a talent for it in my siblings and even in my own
children, and my father's father was in a band. But you do acquire a lot
from your surroundings as a child—and you are a very good example of
that. Most people stick to what they know from their upbringing in their
career, and I really admire people who go in a completely different
direction.

CC: I tried to do that. I worked in the private
sector for years and tried very hard to care about things that were
different from what my parents cared about. But as you said, I just
couldn't because of the environment in which I grew up and the examples
that my parents set for me.SM: I often question why didn't I rebel more. Why
didn't I try to do stuff that was really shocking? But if you have
respect for your parents, then it is quite hard. I think that my slight
rebellion was going into fashion and not music or photography or
something directly related to what my parents did.CC: Mine was to declare that I was a vegetarian. It's kind of sad to say that that was my major act of rebellion.SM: It is actually quite rebellious because the
traditions of eating meat are huge and there is such pressure on all
levels to do so. But your dad now has taken it a step further by turning
vegan, so I guess he is the real rebel.CC: Do you remember when you first became aware of fashion?SM: I was brought up in a way that was based purely
on the senses. Everything in my upbringing was a reaction to growing up
on an organic farm or to the emotions of animal cruelty, as well as the
visuals of my mum's and my father's art—he was also an art collector. I
would watch films. And then there was obviously music in the house 24-7.
These sensory experiences had such an impact on me. My eyes were open. I
would also go into my parents' wardrobe. I was so aware of the stage
clothes versus the everyday-life clothes, and the extremeness of the
stage clothes that my parents had designed. Even coming across my dad's
old Beatles suits from Savile Row and the history attached to them—the
masculinity and simplicity compared to the '70s glitz and glamour of
Wings. I was so visually excited by it all. So the more I think about
it, the younger I think I first became aware of my interest in fashion.CC: Do you remember having conversations with your
parents about fashion in the same way I remember having conversations
with mine about health care around the breakfast table?SM: My parents were pretty uninterested in fashion;
it just was part of what they did. I think that's why I was so visually
inspired by them—because their fashion sense was not strategic or
overthought. It came naturally, the whole mix between old and new and
glamorous and timeless. My mum was notorious for not wearing makeup. We
never really talked about fashion in particular—we talked about health
care too.CC: Do you feel like that enabled you to develop your own creative sensibility? In some ways, maybe it wasan advantage.SM: I think the fact that my parents weren't
conventional—especially considering their position—had a big influence
on the way that I conduct myself now in design and business. It had a
huge impact on my wanting to do something a bit more than just designing
a pretty dress and putting it on a runway and making it glamorous.CC: I really admire how both your clothes and your
company reflect your ethics, whether it's choosing not to use animal
products or the commitment that you've made to responsible
manufacturing.SM: It's that idea of not just thinking in a
conventional way and approaching life with different eyes. I don't mind
if I'm ridiculous. I'm probably still ridiculous in my industry for not
using leather and fur. But I guess I inherited this incredible thing of
not being afraid tobe challenged.CC: Something I have become more aware of as I've
gotten older is the gift my parents gave me of believing that nothing is
impossible and that any challenges can be overcome.SM: When you have kids yourself, you start to see it
from so many angles. It's the biggest pressure of all: How do you
inspire for the betterment of the next generation? It's important to let
them know that they can do and achieve anything. The interesting thing
is that your background can also be a burden. You can question yourself a
lot as you grow up, until you start to become aware of your own
achievements. It's the moment when you think, 'Now I have to take
responsibility' that you really come into your own. What was your
relationship with fashion like when you were younger? How has that
changed for you?CC: Well, I think about fashion now in a cooperative
way. It wasn't always like that, because when I was little I'd watch my
mother—who was this very successful lawyer and children's rights
advocate—be perceived predominantly through her appearance. When my
father ran for president, there were criticisms about her wearing suits
that were two seasons old.SM: Because she was a woman?CC: Because she was a woman, but also because those
surface-level criticisms were more common than thoughtful critiques of
her ideas in regard to public education, for example. Being aware of
that growing up, I did what I thought I could to avoid it. So when I
went to high school, I was always dressed in these monochromatic navy
blue looks because I was trying to avoid any form of criticism. I was
also criticized when I was 12 or 13 and I wore cotton dresses from the
local department store. But that kind of thing wasn't so important to my
family—we were much more into other forms of creativity. When my mother
ran for president, she only wore dark pantsuits with different blouses,
which was a more sophisticated version of the strategy I'd had in high
school. But as I got older I realized that I was still conceiving
something. I never had that effortless aesthetic gene that your parents
had, but I have always been attracted to different colors and fabrics,
so I had to go through this transition later in my life of becoming
comfortable with not being too strict about what I would wear and how I
would wear it—because I wanted to. Sometimes I would be criticized, but
that was a more honest way to behave than just always embracing the
monochromatic shield.SM: It's interesting, the fear that fashion can push
into people. It's not supposed to make you feel bad and paranoid. It's
supposed to encourage you to feel great and reflect who you are.CC: One of the things that we've talked about before
is how the greater fashion industry has been slow to adopt the use of
more nonanimal products and alternatives to leather. Do you feel like
that has changed at all?SM: It's hard to say. I don't think it has changed
massively. I think the next generation of designers is more aware of
those kinds of issues, and that they want to approach design and
manufacturing in a different way. Pretending that the fashion industry
isn't in part based on leather would be quite stupid of me, but at the
same time there is another way of doing things—even outside of leather. I
don't use PVC either, for example, because it is harmful. I do think
that some of the largest houses are starting to put into work a clean
approach to business. But it could be cleaned up quicker. In a way, it's
like politics: people are the answer to all of it. If consumers
challenge the industry to change, then the fashion houses will have to
answer that.CC: I'd think technology would help.SM: Technology is for sure the most exciting
element. I see that in my collaboration with Adidas. The fact that I
don't use PVC came from that, because in the sports world they have to
answer to a bigger demographic and people are really quite interested in
the environment and having a more sustainable world. I do think
technology is improving in the luxury sector, but it's such a huge
investment, and it takes so long—it's never as immediate as you hope.
Technology is definitely the answer for the future, though; it's a
question of how fast we can get there, really.CC: We have a saying in my family, "Patience is a
virtue, but impatience gets things done." What you're describing sounds
like a balance between patience and impatience.SM: We are a pretty small, young company in luxury
fashion, and agility has been key to getting us to where we are now—and
our desire to not take no for an answer. The thing that really excites
me is just being responsible and pushing in every corner of the
business. There are so many ways that you can improve. It's impossible
to be perfect, but for me, it's about getting closer and closer as we
travel forward.CC: You were talking about supporting your children
and encouraging them to find their own directions. How do you think
about that on a creative level? Ensuring that your kids don't feel the
pressure of being as creative as their mother—or their grandparents—but
that they can be if they want to be.SM: I really struggle with that one because I have
been bringing up my kids in a city, and I really did think that by the
time I was ready to have children I would have probably gone back to the
country to live on a farm and mimic the upbringing that I had. But my
business in based in London, and my husband's work is there also, and
the idea of running off to the country and shielding them from the
realities of life and the speed of what happens in the city isn't
realistic. I am certainly not bringing up my kids in the same way that I
was brought up—and I do sometimes worry about that. But I have to
encourage them to be who they are. That is all I want to do—to see how I
can shelter them when I can, and if I can't, to make sure that they
know they have my unconditional love.See all of the 2014 Women Who Dare here.

“Out of the blue, I met this girl and we started talking and she happened to say, ‘I knew Linda.’ So that was emotional. I wouldn’t meet, typically, many people who knew Linda, and who knew her during her cancer treatment – and Nancy did. She’s a cancer survivor herself. So it got very deep, very quickly, and it was like, ‘What the hell was that?’ And then I ran into her a couple of more times on the holiday, and we got to know each other and started dating. So the song is about that, about this depth of emotion, of feeling – but totally being scared to say or do anything about it. Like a tongue-tied teenager.”

Translate

Photo

Total Pageviews

About This Blog

This blog is dedicate to Paul Mccartney the cute one and family.

You have a suggestion? Please fill in the formbelow.This Blog claims no credit for any images featured on it.If you own rights to any of the images, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact us via e-mail and they will be removed.